Workplace Homophobia is Real
Insurance firm Lloyd’s has released a report as part of the Dive In Festival. The report found that 6 in 10 LGBTI people in Australia experience verbal homophobic abuse in the workplace, while two in 10 experience physical violence. Chris Mackinnon, Lloyd’s General Representative in Australia notes “research shows that when LGBTI staff are ‘openly out’ to all, businesses see a 15 to 30 per cent increase in productivity and retention rates improve by 10 per cent.” The report also found that if a worker has a primary language other than English, they are three times more likely to experience discrimination in the workplace than a native English speaker.
In another report by Out Now Consulting demonstrates that 50% of workplaces in Australia are “free from homophobia.” One in seven respondents stated that they have “personally experienced LGBTI harassment while at work in the last twelve months.” Two-thirds of respondents reported that there was at least “some level of homophobia at work, with more than half indicating that this was a low level of ‘occasional’ homophobia.’